Monday, May 10, 2010

Lena Horne

Last week, I found myself listening to the song, "If You Believe," as sung by Lena Horne, almost non-stop. Last night, Lena Horne left this world for the next one.

Dear Ms. Lena, thank you so very much for helping me to believe in myself. Rest in peace sweet spirit, powerful woman, child of Africa. You brought us love and lived with dignity during a time when dignity was denied to black people and most of all black women. I love you, Ms. Lena. We all do. Sleep well.

Lena

In dignity deniedduring Jim Crow's timeyou held your headcocked to the sidesmile curvingbreasts and hipstaped up in black soldier's lockersparaded across USO stagesstaged a one woman warto protest military segregationmarched in Birmingham on Albanybecause you believedin your own freedomfree will to free yourselfand freed us from head ragsand rag timeleft behind minstrel showsand showed the worldthat black woman and sex symbolare synonyms made L.E.N.Ainto an acronym: LUSCIOUS, ELEGANT, NEGRO, and ALIVEyou refused to hide your sensuality or sexualitythe duality of living in a black/white divideskin a passport and a barrierharried by children that called you whitenever white enough for Hollywoodyou kept onand kept uskeeping onwith song and dance and laughtera beautiful sister unafraid to be blackunashamed to be womanunsurpassed as a human

2 comments:

I've always felt a "kinship" with Ms. Horne, partially because we were/are both from African descent, partially because we were/are Leos, but more that we both were born in Brooklyn, NY. I do believe her name is in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden "Walk of Fame," for all celebrities born in the borough.

My Feet Only Walk Forward

A Bit Of Me in Ones and Zeroes

Named February 2011's Bad-Ass Feminist of the Month by NotYourAverageFeminist.com, BLC is also a poet, playwright, journalist,amateur chef and life commentator doing his bit to put his foot in the asses of the regressive masses, while putting filling and nutritious food on plates of folks that ain't got much and deserve better. And, thank you to MyLatinVoice.Com which named me the #2 Queer Latin@ Blogger on the web for my blog My Feet Only Walk Forward: www.myfeetonlywalkforward.blogspot.com

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